1.1.10-Theclourbluemakes
Brick!Club Day 10 Can I say that this is one of my favorite chapters from Fantine? (Or at east which I can remember) It’s also the first chapter which I underlined things in my book so I could remember to come back to them. On my first time reading this chapter, I felt as if it was the first time the bishop appeared to not be perfect (Though admittedly, I was rushing through it)Because I don’t plan things out, you’re going to have a chronological noting of things as I re read the chapter. Only doing Rose today because I’m lazy btw. There are more notes in this than I thought there would be… First off. The bishop is torn between meeting the Conventionalist (Gonna be writing it as G. from now on) Because he as a person felt as if he would dislike such a man, yet on the other hand, his duties to each and every person in his other values state that he should be fair to each man. I think this line sums it up well: "In that case are you my bishop?" "In a way" I also like the line “We’ll keep each other company in sleep” for some reason. The reason why? I don’t know. It just feels sad, yet calming at the same time I guess. The description of G. “This man, after all, this conventionalist, this master of the people, had been one of the masters of the universe; for perhaps the first time in his life, the bishop felt an urge to be harsh” With my threadbare knowledge of how royalty works, The master of the universe bit really gets me. The king was seen to be appointed by God right? So by voting (Or seemingly doing so) to kill the King means going against God? I guess back then it did seem like the whole world might fall apart. I loved that he (Paraphrasing here because I’m too lazy to keep checking for exact quotes. If someone asks though, I’ll be happy to get them)voted for the end of the tyrant, ignorance, engendered by royalty and that we should be governed by science. The bishop rebuts with “And conscience” and is replied with “It’s the same thing…” This would have been an amazing idea at the time, where people relied on the Bible for conscience, (Once again, not a historian so things may not be accurate) to hear that people don’t need it. Next, I got really annoyed. “The end of prostitution for women, the end of slavery for men and the end of darkness for children.” was a quote I thought one of the les amis use later in the book, but I couldn’t find it. I love how he rebuts the bishop as well when he tried to poke at what G. is saying. The Law, which was thought to be neutral and built up to be fair, he just replies about how passionate the law actually is. And then the bishop goes on to proclaim that the judge is for justice and the bishop is for pity, which is replied to with a list of those who were innocent but deemed by representatives of the law somehow to have been apart of something which they were not, because of blood. I just realised how short my attention span is. If things don’t make sense, just ask and I’ll attempt to clarify. If the formatting or wording of something is weird, I apologise. and then theres the comparison of the Huguenots and royalty. Where Marie-Antoinette had a swift death, the Huguenot woman had to suffer before she died. This debate here was breaking down the bishops “Entrenched internal defenses”. The bishops replies to G. were all things he held dear to him. I don’t know why, but I admire how quickly G. was able to break down these things and the speed at which the bishop realised. Surprisingly enough, G. is shaken when the bishop says that an atheist is a bad leader for the human race. After all that he said, he still believes God is necessary. I’m pretty sure i don’t agree with this. While I do think religion is positive in life, it is not a necessity. This view, of course, is a product of our time (See what I did there?). The next lines which stood out for me was how he tore up the altar cloth to bandage the wounds of his homeland. Sacrificing religious beliefs for the good of the people. Awesome. Next, the bishop looks for the blessing of G. this sort of surprised me, and I’m still a bit puzzled by it. Was it because he seemed to have a good knowledge of things? I don’t know. If someone can explain it to me, that’d be awesome. "All revolutionaries are irreligious." I feel almost as if their religion is the people. Finally, the last line of the chapter about the red bonnet and the hat. (OMG RED). After reading the notes in my book, the attitude that the bishop gives in this line is just awesome. Well, thanks for reading my rant, written much like I talk. Yeah, I need to work on my speech. And probably re read everything, but I’m too lazy for that. ps. It seems that my pencils have marked the side of my book and now there’s two large black marks on the side of my book which I can’t clean off. this makes me sad. Commentary Doeskin-pantaloons The Bishop asking for the blessing of the Conventionist was actually one of the parts of the chapter that made the most sense to me, at which I went, “Yep, now you’re doing it right.” Because the Bishop has come out to bless (and I presume offer the Last Rites to, had he wanted them) to Conventionist, although he really feels very negatively towards him. And the whole situation is turned on its head, with the Bishop asking the Conventionist for blessing, because he realises that this man fights against human suffering, can justify his actions, and is basically incredibly enlightened. He goes expecting to bless a man who he thinks doesn’t deserve it, and finds a man whose blessing he would like. As for the “masters of the universe” thing, Hapgood gives us “powerful ones of the earth”, which is a lot easier to interpret simply as a reference to his role as a leading figure in the Revolution. The French gives us “un puissant de la terre”, which I’m led to believe is closer to Hapgood. Kingedmundsroyalmurder I loved that line about tearing the altar cloth to bandage the wounds of the people so much. Pilferingapples I love that “tore up the altar cloth” line. I don’t see it so much as tearing up religious faith- after all, G does express a faith of his own in his very last moments— but the power/aura of the church, perhaps?